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Fancy Erector Set? Nope. The elaborate fractal structure shown at right (with a close-up below) is many, many times smaller than that and is certainly not child’s play. It is the latest example of what Julia Greer, professor of materials science and mechanics, calls a fractal nanotruss—nano because the structures are made up of members that are as thin as five nanometers (five billionths of a meter); truss because they are carefully architected structures that might one day be used in structural engineering materials.